


Friends That Will Always Stand By Me (When This Girl Meets World)

by lunarknightz



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 13:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5419196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarknightz/pseuds/lunarknightz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Look Riles, the farther away she goes, the smaller she gets."</p>
<p>In her darkest hour, Riley isn't alone (set during/post "Girl Meets Rileytown".)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends That Will Always Stand By Me (When This Girl Meets World)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SaraJaye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraJaye/gifts).



Riley’s phone roared like a lion, thanks to the text tone she’d recently downloaded. 

She loved that roaring sound, an impulse purchase but a very cool purchase all the same. None of her friends or family had sound like that on their phone.   A message. She had gotten a message! Her parents had _finally_ let her get a cell phone. Every other kid in New York seemed to get a cell phone by the time they were old enough for kindgergarten, but not Riley. Her parents kept on blathering on about how they didn’t have cell phones when they were young, but finally they relented. 

So Riley’s phone was precious to her. And she loved getting messages. Messages from Maya, corny jokes from Zay, daily math problems from Farkle, pictures from Lucas. She even got messages from the phone company letting her know when she was close to using up of her data- wasn’t that nice of them?   Riley jumped up and grabbed her phone, excited to see who the message was from.  

The message wasn’t from Maya. Or Farkle, or Zayne, or Lucas. Not even the phone company. 

The phone fell out of her hand and bounced on the bed.

The roar sounded again, and again.  Riley fought back tears. And turned her phone to silent.  Her cellphone didn’t seem so cool any more.   

 

________________

 

Maya Penelope Hart was mad. No, not mad- _furious_. 

Anger was flowing through her body, and she couldn’t help but pace around her room, her hands balled into fists that wouldn’t stop shaking.  Maya was not a violent person. She would fight people with snark rather than her fists- but -if or rather _when_ \- Maya discovered who it was that had been bullying Riley- she’d gladly make an exception. 

  Riley was the best kind of person. Yes, Riley was a little different. She always seemed to see the best in everyone and everything- an eternal optimist. Riley still could live in a world of make-believe and dreams that most kids had left behind by middle school. Maya had never been the kind of person who could see Rileytown on her own- but because of Riley’s sheer well, Riley-ness, Maya had a passport into that kind of world. It made Maya feel better about herself. Less cynical, more Riley-like.  Riley was her person. And if anyone was going to mess with Riley, they were going to deal with Maya first. 

 

A spark of creativity hit Maya as she paced. She ran to the easel at the side of her room, and let the paint begin to fly. Halfway through her painting, Maya ran over to her desk and pulled out her notes from Mr. Matthew’s class. She remembered a quote that would be perfect…(Thank You, Mr. Matthews) Maya flipped through pages until she found the right page. 

 

Tearing that page out of her notebook, Maya returned to her painting.   _“No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent.- Eleanor Roosevelt”._ Maya wrote in her best script handwriting- over the bright purple background, and above the smiling girl atop a globe.

   One day, she’d give this picture to Riley. One day.  But Maya knew it wasn’t time yet.   

 

 _______________

 

It wasn’t that long ago that Lucas Friar was convinced that girls had cooties. He still isn’t sure _exactly_ how he feels about Riley, but he is 100% certain that she doesn’t have cooties. 

On one hand, she is one of the best friends he's ever had. She’s easy to talk to, and is so enthusiastic about well, everything….and understanding. Lucas is also a big fan of her smile and finds her absolutely adorable.

She was his first kiss, and that’s something special. But he doesn’t feel ready to date, and things are so complicated and really, Lucas isn’t sure how anybody makes it out of middle school alive and sane.

  He does know that Riley Matthews is one of those people that he wants in his life. Forever.  

Lucas wants to protect Riley. He’s pretty sure that he could get himself expelled from another school for protecting Riley with his fists, as he really wants to.  But he isn’t Texas Lucas any more. New York has changed him. Riley has changed him.   Lucas asks himself what Riley would do in this situation.  He goes to see his friend. Riley needs him, and he’s not going to let her down.

 

____________  

 

He’s still getting used to New York, to John Quincy Adams Middle School, to the strange group of awesome friends that he’s found himself in the middle of. But truth be told, Zay likes it all. It’s good to know that people have your back.   

New York is a different world than Texas. One that seems to be truly low on manners, Zay thinks, as he looks up at the Matthew’s apartment. It just isn’t right to scamper in somebody’s window unannounced. So he tries to be a gentleman, and he enters the room the right way- through a door.  

Riley needs help. And he’s going to help.  But nobody ever did anything on an empty stomach.   So Zay pours himself a bowl of cereal. Brain food.  
   
He goes to see Riley. Because that’s what friends do. In New York, or Texas. Anywhere. 

 

 __________

 

He has loved Riley Matthews for as long as he can remember. Since first grade, Farkle has been mesmerized by her smile, her kindness, her charm. He has spent hours trying to carefully map out a plan for their future together.  In the last year, though, he’s really gotten to know Riley. After years of chasing her and Maya like a love struck Pepe LePew, he’s become her friend. The Riley he has come to know is even more wonderful than the one he had idolized. No longer does she just tolerate him, they are friends, confidants. They understand each other. 

So what if it isn’t a love connection? They’re in eighth grade. 

Being Riley’s friend means so much to Farkle. He wouldn’t trade it for the world.  He’s been bullied. Farkle knows how it feels. It makes him angry. Being weird, being unique, being different- why is that a crime? It doesn’t make any scientific sense. There’s not a formula for why people are so cruel, why people try to make you feel so bad about yourself. Farkle hates that they’re doing this to Riley.  There’s so much he wants to say to Riley. That people are dumb if they can’t appreciate how wonderful she is. That it’s okay to be your own person, other people be damned. That who ever it is that’s teasing her deserves to be humiliated themselves.

  Farkle is going to be a good friend to her. He’ll be there for her.   She’d done the same for him.  The truly unique and different people in the world have to stick up for one another, lest the ordinary small people of the world dim their light.  As far as Farkle Minkus was concerned, Riley Matthews would always shine.  

 

 _________ 

 

 The halls of John Quincy Adams Junior High had always been a safe place to Riley. When she was little, before Auggie was born and when Topanga was still putting in many hours at the law firm as she worked her way to the top, Riley would spend afternoons with her father. She would play as her father graded papers. The cinderblock classroom became a ball room fit for a princess with the magic of imagination. 

Riley threw her first awards ceremony in the halls of John Quincy Adams before she’d met Maya. In eighth grade, she had almost let a mean girl shake the safety of these halls. But that mean girl did not succeed. And as Riley grew up, the memories of that girl grew smaller and far away.  Today, her Dad was retiring, after many long years. Everything seemed smaller now, as if time had shrunk the things that used to mean so much. 

Except, Riley thought, for her friends.  Standing near her in the hall outside her father’s classroom, ready to surprise her Dad, were her friends. The friends that had stayed in touch, that still supported each other- even though time had changed them, and scattered them around the globe. And as they smiled at each other, for a second, it was almost as if they were back in Middle School, trying to figure out the world.

Maya. Lucas. Zay. Farkle. Riley.  Everyone should be blessed to have such friends.  With a grin and a squeal, Riley stretched out her hands and pulled her friends close. There could not be a better award for a life well lived than friends like these.  The hug broke apart as the door to her father’s classroom opened. Her Dad was surrounded by friends including Shawn, her mother, Uncle Eric, and Farkle’s dad, along with other friends she knew Jack, Rachel, and Angela. Even Janitor Harley was there.

Riley exchanged a grin with her father.   The greatest lesson he’d taught wasn’t just in a classroom. And Riley was proud to be her Dad’s crazy, zany, goofy daughter.  The universe was a pretty good place.   
  

 

   
   
 

**Author's Note:**

> I truly hope you enjoy this story, Yuletide Giftee! Happy Christmas & Merry Yuletide!


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